Strategy Analytics found that Apple shipped about 17.7 million phones for the fourth quarter

A new report from Strategy Analytics shows that Apple was the No. 1 phone vendor in the U.S. for Q4 2012.

According to the report, which was conducted by Strategy Analytics' Wireless Device Strategies service, Apple became the No. 1 mobile phone vendor for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2012. It grabbed about 34 percent of the market in that three-month period.

Strategy Analytics found that Apple shipped about 17.7 million phones for the fourth quarter, which was a healthy increase from 12.8 million shipped and 25 percent of the market share in Q4 2011.

The report noted that Samsung, the hardware maker for many popular Android smartphones, was nipping at Apple's heels with 16.8 million mobile phone shipments in the fourth quarter, giving it 32 percent of the market share. This was a nice 5 percent jump for Samsung from Q4 2011.

LG landed in third place with about 4.7 million phone shipments and 9 percent of the market share in Q4.

Mobile phone shipments overall grew 4 percent for the quarter compared to Q4 2011, jumping from 50.2 million to 52 million in the U.S.

Is it just a question of a head start? That seems implausible given the fact that Android has been outselling iOS fr a couple of years now and it's installed base is large and yet iOS continues to out perform by a very a very large margin on any etruc if platform usuage and monetisation you can measure. Somthing more profoud and significant is happening.

If you'd like to think so, go ahead... Dont count Android out like you did Windows 20 years ago. Open and cheap will always win over closed and expensive. That and its early in the game, there are years and years to go in this... fortunately there are 2 major players unlike MS alone so competition can drive things, instead of monopolies

"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates